man city v everton – man city to win and both teams to score
despite breaking all manner of records en route to winning the premier league last season man city did have the odd wobble. pep guardiola may secretly be happy that he will no longer have to answer questions about whether or not his team can remain unbeaten for the whole season but he will be keen to ensure that the citizens’ first loss of the season does not become a longer term problem. he will also no doubt be keen to move back to the top of the table sooner rather than later.
everton, buoyed by a last minute equaliser against watford on monday night which made it just one defeat in six, will be keen to exploit any damage done to man city’s confidence. the toffees have every chance of scoring at the etihad but the home side are the worthy favourites and can win an entertaining match in which both teams score at best betting odds of 6/4.
liverpool fans have enjoyed lauding it over man utd fans for the last year or so. whilst united have faltered under the management of jose mourinho, liverpool have become known throughout europe for their exciting style of play. the riposte from man utd fans is always that style is nothing without substance and that liverpool are yet to win anything of any note under jurgen klopp.
that may well change this season. klopp has pulled back on some of his attacking tendencies and a more well rounded liverpool look as well placed to contend for major silverware as ever. this newly defensively sound liverpool will fancy their chances of keeping man utd at bay for large swathes of their meeting at anfield whilst mourinho will have no problem with a cautious approach from his players, which is why our odds comparison shows that under 3.5 goals is available at a best price of 1/2.
torino fans must get tired of the praise that constantly gets heaped onto their local rivals, juventus. nothing has changed in that regard this season as the old lady are once again set to run away with the scudetto but torino can at least be happy with their own performances in serie a.
torino are better off than they were at this stage last season and hopes are growing that walter mazzzarri’s men will be able to sustain a challenge for the european places. the sixth placed team are yet to beat any of the side currently above them in the serie a table though and that run isn’t going to change on saturday evening. juventus, who are available at football odds of 11/20, will know they’re in a game but have the quality and the motivation to rise to the challenge with another win.
barcelona and real madrid could hardly have done more to open the door to their opponents in the early stages of the liga season. the big two have both recovered somewhat in recent weeks though leaving atletico madrid to rue the fact that they have not taken full advantage.
diego simeone’s men trail both barcelona and sevilla in the liga table but would be two points clear at the top had they secured as many points as at the same stage last season. atletico’s main problem is that they’ve drawn too many matches. they remain incredibly tough to beat and should have few problems keeping a clean sheet away to valladolid at best betting odds of 5/6 but will they do enough in an attacking sense to win the match?
barcelona have fought their way to the top of la liga despite not being at their best all too often. ernesto valverde very much needs his team to stay there now for the rest of the season if he is to do enough domestically to prove that he is the right man for the manager’s job at the camp nou. there is a feeling that valverde may be a little out of his depth as stories of a lack of discipline emerge whilst things are far from perfect on the pitch.
barcelona have a squad that is more than strong enough to defend their title but will need to address a lack of consistency. they’ll also need to improve defensively and both issues could cause them problems against this entertaining but unpredictable levante side. levante may not have the quality to beat barcelona but they’re certainly in good enough goalscoring form with nine goals in three games to suggest they’ll make the catalan side work for all three points. therefore, the best football odds from this one could be the 21/20 you can get on barcelona winning and over 3.5 goals being scored.
there are no signs of borussia dortmund slowing down anytime soon at the top of the bundesliga. lucien favre’s men secured another win in the derby against schalke thanks to yet more brilliance from jadon sancho. next up for dortmund is a home match against a werder bremen side who have collapsed dramatically after a positive start to the season.
bremen secured their first win in six matches against fortuna dusseldorf last weekend but had a couple of scares along the way. despite finding results tough to come by, bremen have had little problem scoring and should find the net at the westfalenstadion in what we predict will be another exciting clash. stopping this excellent dortmund side from scoring and winning is another matter though. the bookies expect goals but our odds comparison shows that over 3.5 goals is still available at evens which is a price well worth taking.
conclusion
this is one of the busiest times of the footballing calendar across europe. we are right into the meat of the domestic league season and the teams who can remain strong during the winter are the teams who will go on to have success in the spring. there are huge games for the leaders of the premier league, serie a, la liga and bundesliga this weekend and also, by extension, the teams chasing them down.
it remains to be seen whether all of the big boys can maintain their momentum or if they will falter but we have picked out the best betting options from six of the most important matches in europe and combined them together for an accumulator which has a real chance of paying out at best betting odds of just over 42/1.